Vintage Comics – Black Magic, Issue #2: The Scorn of the Faceless People, The Cheerful Old Lady in Black (Cover-Pg. 17)

Recall the classic episode of the Twilight Zone wherein a man is haunted by his dreams (okay…maybe there was more than one), and he sought aid from a doctor only for the woman of his dreams/nightmare to pursue him to his death. Then recall the one where the man traveled through time in his dream on a train. This first story seems to open like both, until it turns into a very peculiar bit of dream analysis. Some pretty fun imagery, and I’ll admit it took me a bit by surprise. The second story uses one of my favorite tropes–death on a joyride.

Vintage Comics: Nightmare, Issue #3: The Werewolf of Washington Square, Cup of Moonglow (Cover – Pg. 13)

Whew! Almost mid-October (happy Friday the 13th, and I hope you’re enjoying a bit of Jason slaughter today!) The posts are warming up, and so is my grad school homework. Still, I’ve found time to upload yet another vintage comic. This one is in far worse shape than the others I’ve managed to scrounge up, but the art is – – well, how should I put it? Cartoonier? A little more offbeat? Somehow, at the same time, certain elements of these stories are also pretty detailed towards realism. In fact, the werewolf face is remarkably similar to Dr. Hyde in the ’31 film. 21 years after the fact, I can’t help but wonder if the artist sourced a lobby card or old poster, perhaps?

Following on the tail-end of the glory days (pre-code horror comics), I sort of appreciate the pulp-ish inspiration they clearly drew from on the cover art. It’s also a victim of radio-style dialog, per usual for the earlier stuff, but there’s a certain charm to that too. The first story is…well…I mean it’s a basic werewolf plot. Incredbly basic. Bare bones down to the character name (Eric Lupin.) The second story proves yet another age-old fact. You can’t trust men. You can’t trust women. You definitely can’t trust gigantic Amazonian witch snakes.

Horror Flick of the Week: Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010)

In light of this year’s tragedy (which only serves to make me even more aware that eventually John Carpenter’s going to kick the bucket too), I decided to recommend something I’ve not only got on this month’s watch list for you guys, but probably one of the best horror film documentaries I’ve ever seen. Painstakingly created by people who clearly loved the NOES series, which excellent stop motion interludes between sequences…this is a documentary I could easily say might become part of my personal yearly Halloween watch list.

If you like Robert Englund. If you like Wes Craven. If you like NOES or Freddy. If you like horror documentaries. If you like any and/or all of the above, I urge you to watch this as soon as you can. It’s just that good.

A Short Video: Purgation

I did not produce this one, nor did I write it. In fact, I wasn’t even a member of this group in film directing, because mine was a crazier project I’ve already shared here, but…I did play a minor role in this one as the aunt. Though it does take a few viewings to catch the whole story, the director (Jason Litman) is incredibly talented. His videos were always some of the best in that class, so I thought it would be a good idea to share this one with my readers.

A young girl visits her aunt, and goes into the basement, then reads a book that causes strange things to happen. Is it a dream, or is it reality?